Verão Violento

Why not make a drama that really brings home how it does affect ordinary people ... or a whole town/village. In this case it is the second world war ... I have to admit, I do not know how I would have reacted if I were one of those characters in the movie. Although I am quite certain they are not just characters but either based on real people or close to what people felt and did back then.

If that sounds like a slow paced drama/movie you are up to watch ... well go ahead and do it. Everyone else might have issues with it and how it tells its story. It's a what if ... and what would you do ... and while it may have aged, it still is poignant and apt ... and full of emotion.

(1959) Violent Summer/ Estate violenta (In Italian with English subtitles) WAR DRAMA

Co-written and directed by Valerio Zurlini that refers to "Violent Summer" as a metaphor of WWII that serves as a backdrop here. The opening has Carlo Caremoli (Jean Louis Trintignant) returning back to the small town of Riccione where he is visiting his peers of Daniele (Giampiero Littera), Giulio (Bruno Carotenuto), Serena (Cathia Caro), Giorgio (Raf Mattioli) and the one who has a crush on Carlo is Rossana (Jacqueline Sassard) as they all do things together such as boating and hanging out at the beach. One day as soon as a war plane flies overhead, a young girl, we find out her name is Colomba becomes scared running up to Carlo's arms. Her mother, Roberta Parmesan (Eleonora Rossi Drago) then tries to reassure her daughter, and Carlo then offers to carry them to their home. And it was at this point he becomes infatuated with her as soon as he learns she is a widow. Roberta is slightly older than him, but he still insists on seeing her much often. And then her sister-in law, Maddalena (Federica Ranchi) and brother in law, Martino show up and are offered to stay with her and her mother. And it was the result that it was under war territory, and because Maddalena is about the same age as Carlo's peers, she decided to introduce her to them.

I believe that there are movies, and movies... "Violent summer", in my modest opinion, it is one of those movies "outstanding." It is able to remain in the memory after 42 years, with some unforgettable Eleonora Rossi Drago and Jean Louis Trintignant. The music " live-motive" it created next to the rest of the sound band and the "light and shade" of the picture an overwhelming and captivating atmosphere. The protagonistic couple's election is decisive. The mature woman and the youth are achieved faultlessly. During years I was in love with that woman (I was 16 years old when I saw it). I believe that it is unjust to disqualify certain movies. There will always be who find defects of some type. And in any thing. Maximum when it is intangible things. But the feelings, the summer, the war like detonating., and the passion becomes tangible in this film. And that is undeniable. God willing it is re-published in the future for delight of us and of the new generations. Because the good cinema is much more than the critics of the specialist.

Valerio Zurlini (1926 - 1982) was essentialy forgotten when in the 2000's his films were again brought under the attention of the public by way of DVD releases and retrospectives. Although Zurlini may not be an Fellini or Visconti, his films are still worth seeinig.

"Violent summer" is situated in the summer of 1943. The war is going badly for Fascist Italy but, unlike the population in Germany in "Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam" (1957, Robert Siodmak), Carlo (Jean Louis Trintignant) and his friends are still living the "dolce vita". They are in the Northern of Italy while the allied forces are invading the South. They are, so to speak, dancing on the edge of the volcano.

The violence in "Violent summer" is restricted to the last 10 minutes of the film. The rest of the time the film is rather slow, with beautiful cinematography.

"Violent summer" has two themes. In the first place it is about a rich boy (Carlo) who is using the influence of his dad to avoid military conscription. In this way it is similar to "The cranes are flying" (1957, Mikhail Kalatozov). In "The cranes ..." the boy is presented as a disgrace and compared to the real heroes in this patriotic war. In "Violent summer" the behavior of Carlo is partly overshadowed by the second theme of impossible love. Carlo gets a relationship with war widow Roberta (Eleonora Rossi Drago). This relationship is condemned by friends and relatives on both sides. On the side of Carlo there is a jalous girl friend. The family of Roberta is of the opinion she should honor the memory of her deceased husband. In fact they try to make this 30 year old woman a prisoner of this memory.

In the ambiguous end it is unclear which theme is dominant.

Jean-Louis Trintignat plays the draft-dodging son of a powerful Nazi in 1943 Italy, in a prelude to Bertolucci's "The Conformist," who falls in love with an older war widow, in an absolutely brilliant performance by Eleonora Rossi Drago, (what else has she ever been in?) featuring a brilliantly choreographed sequence to the song "Temptation," reminding me of Fassbinder's "The Bitter Tears of Petra Van Kant," this is one of the better scenes one is ever likely to see in all of cinema where the lovers dance and fall in love around a nude male statue oblivious to the war raging outside, similar to Oshima's "In the Realm of the Senses," there is an extraordinary pacing to the film, an intense love affair, reminiscent of Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman in Hitchcock's "Notorious," this is a beautifully written, old-fashioned melodrama, the likes of which we just don't see any more.